hour. we were told by the spokesperson for the military there in israel that there will be some event there in northern gaza within the next few hours. >> talking about that more when we come back at 8:00 a.m. >> san gaye gupta up next. >> got big news on one of the bigger stories we're covering. medical marijuana. i'll tell you why a first of its kinds pot study that was approved by the federal government is now hit a major snag. first up, people are celebrating baseball, the all-star game is coming up tuesday. but there is this new shadow over the game that we talked about before. that's the staggering number of pitchers, not believing the numbers even young star players knocked out with arm injuries. it's not just the big guys. some doctors don't blink when they see teens coming in to have elbows rebuilt. >> stephen strasburg and matt harvey, this year jose

fernandez and kris medlen with surgery number two. young stars on the shelf. these guys throw hard, strasberg throws 95 miles an hour. the cincinnati reds chapman closed at 106 miles an hour. not only are the balls coming faster, with more stuff. >> 95 to 100 miles an hour. ridiculous amount of torque on the arm. >> bronson arroyo of the diamondbacks announced that he will undergo tommy john surgery to replace a torn elbow ligament. >> so i thought i was going to take time off, a lot of swelling but i was surprised that he said it was ripped off the bone. >> despite intense monitoring and cautious pitch limits a third of big league pitchers have had this operation. the american sports medicine institute calls it an epidemic. they say the damage doesn't start at the professional level. >> what pitchers are doing in

their teen year, how much baseball they are playing, throwing they are doing i think it has a direct correlation to what we're seeing later on in their careers. >> mark silverman coached his son's little league team for nine years. >> kids are playing three, four, five games a day, pitching six, seven, eight innings a day. and you're looking at kids going up well in the hundreds of pitches one afternoon in one game. it is a concern. >> joining me from new york is the author of the sports gene inside the science of extraordinary athletic performance. what strikes me david when i hear about these things is that we seem to baby, if you will, pitchers more than ever in the big leagues. yet these arm injuries are at an all-time high. how do you reconcile those two things? >> right. there is no question that major league pitchers are pitching less than they have before.

pitch counts are at historic lows. these injuries are set in motion in the developing elbow. so this is something where the groundwork is set by micro tears 18 ligament when the elbow is developing. during puberty, when the arm is growing. what we're seeing at the major league level is something that can be preventsed at the major league level. it has to be prevented in the developing pitcher. >> you say before they even get to the big leagues they show up as good as they may be they show up perhaps with these micro tears or injuries. >> right. they are pitching less than ever at the major league -- there's only so much less they could possibly pitch at the major league level but their lifetime pitch countses are higher than ever. there are youth pitchers playing for multiple teams, the teams that aren't coordinating between one another. so instead of having 80 pitches on five days rest, you have 80 pitches on one or two days rest. there are these showcases where youth pitchers are made to show up if they want to be scouted by

other teams so they are pitching like crazy. and radar guns have become ubiquitous. parents use them. kids are throwing harder than they were at a younger age. >> so one of the things that we're thinking of, the number of operations increasing, that's reflective of the fact there's all of these problems with elbows in particular. but could it be that the -- it's not so much that you have more injuries, that we're diagnosing them more, that players are more likely to get the surgery as opposed to before? so it may not have changed that much, just that our approach toward intervention has changed? >> i think there's an aspect of that, certainly more getting diagnosed and sort of continuing to want to pitch than just dropping out of the sport altogether. at the same time, the surgeries are going up among high school and youth pitchers as well. i think some is a higher prevalence of the injury as well as increased diagnosis. >> i remember one of the

surgeons saying young people are coming in thinking i get this operation, the tommy john, i have have two ligaments instead of one makes my armstronger. so they are more likely to get it. we don't know and i don't think surgeons would say they are doing unnecessary surgery, but there is no question the numbers have gone up. is it just pitch count? i remember there used to be a concern of throwing curveballs. >> i think some of the emphasis on the curveball because it can be this weird arm motion, that's sort of receded a little bit and the studies pointed more toward number of throws and strength of throws. so, the kids are trying to throw harder, again partly because of radar guns, they are not having the off season they used to to strengthen your rotator cuff, the muscles and ligaments that stabilize your shoulder and build flexibility so they are missing that time they would have been building up the

support to resist throwing harder. to resist the damage from throwing harder, instead spending time throwing harder. the issue of throwing junkballs, not as important as once thought. >> always enjoy having you on the program. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up, why a federally funded supported study of medical marijuana ran into some big trouble. we'll explain. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks.

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when it comes to medical marijuana there haven't been enough studies testing its effectiveness. we talk about this all the time. that was a pretty big deal when the fda approved the study at the university of arizona looking at marijuana as a possible treemts for veterans with post traumatic stress. this week the professor launching the trial was let go by the university. sue sisly had been an associate professor more than seven years and thinks the move came down to politics. thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> are you doing all right? >> we sure are. we're going to persevere. >> jarring time for you. >> it's so demoralizing. this is work we've been fightsing for for over four years. the veterans have been standing shoulder to shoulder with us pushing for this work to get implemented. to have it cut off at the knee likes this is so disheartening.

>> i want to talk specifically about the study. this is something we report on. what's going on now with you and the university. they say look, this is not out of the ordinary, we have -- we make these decisions all the time. and not renew people's contracts. they wouldn't comment specifically on your case. they don't seem to be thinking this is some big deal though. >> well, the university took away my work without giving me any reason. not even a fair hearing. it wasn't an issue of job performance, that's clear from my evalues. it was an issue i was at the forfronts of some of the most controversial research at the university of arizona, and it appears that the u of a may have buckled under the pressure of some very right wing lawmakers in arizona who have gone on record to say that they oppose marijuana research. >> i want to point out again we did talk to the university, wouldn't comment specifically on you but did say in 2013

specifically university championed state legislation to ensure that universities could perform medical marijuana research on campus, they say they have not received political pressure to terminate any employee as has been suggested. >> well, it's clear that marijuana research was -- that is fda approved, was always legal to on com campus. you do federally regulated it super seeds state laws. we were urging the university to find us a home. they refused suggesting it was illegal and they needed to run this bill through the legislature. so that served to delay the implementation of this research another eight, nine months because they had to navigate a bill through the legislature and that succeeded in doing what they hoped was to impede the progress of this research. they could never seem to embrace the optics of conductsing marijuana research on their campus. >> quickly, to button that up were you political it is a all

in any way? did you try and influence an election or any part of the career of any of these elected officials? >> no. i was simply trying to educate the public about the need to eliminate all of these unnecessary barriers to marijuana research. i was an outspoken advocate for conducting this work and trying to help our veterans. that's been my soul focus the last four years, how do we help our vets coming back in droves with ptsd that is treatment resistant. how do we help these folks. seems we had a mountain of evidence suggesting that this plant, many of our vets are using to manage symptoms. nobody is saying it's a cure but it does seem to be effective for symptom control and the notion that there's a potential that a plant could reduce the human suffering of these vets, yet it's forced to sit on the shelf not being allowed to be tested rigorously is an abomination. i think we have a duty as

physicians, as the general citizenry, to demand that this plants be put through the proper drug development process of the fda, that's all we've ever wanted. >> throughout history there have been constant conflicts between science and politics. and there has been times it hasn't been easy at all. hopefully i come down on the side of science and facts and data, let the people be educated. i hope we get to that point. >> yep. i agree. i think we will. i have hope. i still love the university of arizona. i will always be devoted to them and i think this was just the decision of a few short-sighted negligent administrators who don't see the value of this work. >> a lot of fear out there. >> there really is. >> appreciate you coming on the program. i know this -- it's a challenging time for you. hopefully this will help shine light on it. >> thank you so much. >> up next experimental treatment that doctors say just might be able to reverse the damage from a heart attack.

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stem cells may be changing the picture. >> it's called the widow maker. >> gerald, a dermatologist near los angeles suffered a heart attack in march. >> all of a sudden the pain started. i mean, i couldn't sit still. i mean even in the car, driving over there, i couldn't put a seat belt on. i'm moving around trying to think of something else. but the pain overtakes every thought. >> doctors in the emergency room saved his life. 20% of his heart muscle was dead. >> you can lose one quarter or even 40% of your functioning heart muscle overnight. >> during a heart attack muscle is starved of oxygen and dies. if the patient survives a scar forms. the remaining muscle can't pump as much blood. when the damage is extensive enough over time months or years the body tries to compensate by

making the heart larger but that only makes the pumping less efficient. it's a vicious cycle which leads in the end to heart failure. in april, he checked in to take part in a new trial testing stem cells as a way to reverse damage from a heart attack. here's how it works. doctors infuse stem cells in the damaged coronary artery. from there cells embed themselves in the heart tissue where they trigger the growth of new blood vessels. >> so the end result is new heart muscle. >> the cells will be there, they will be there for weeks and during that time they do their magic and their magic stays behind long after the cells are gone. >> other small studies have gotten good results. using a patient's own cardiac stem cells. this approach uses cells grown from the hearts of organ donors, it's simpler and it seems to work as well.

the study aims to test the treatment at treatment at more than two dozen hospitals around the united states on more than 300 patients. we caught up with gerald karpman nine weeks after his procedure. he's back to walking four miles a day. what he doesn't know, though, is whether he actually got stem cells or just a dummy treatment, a placebo. that won't be revealed until the end of the trial. probably late next year. along with answers that could spell hope or disappointment for millions of patients. >> if you have the placebo effect, it may be the stem cells, i don't know. i haven't thought too much about it. i'm just happy i'm feeling better. >> that might be the future of medicine but, you know, there is another way to reverse heart damage that's decidedly low tech. i talk about this a lot. you heard me say this before. but the evidence just got even stronger for food as medicine. cleveland clinic researchers have now confirmed that food can heal your heart.

their study published in "the journal of family practice" found a plant-based diet not only prevents heart attacks but can actually reverse the damage. first of all, out of the patients who tried the vegan di diet, almost nine out of ten stuck with it. 81% had fewer symptoms and experienced fewer complications from heart disease. a whopping 22% reversed signs of heart disease. and the participants lost almost 20 pounds each on average. >> you have some easy-to-remember adages about how people can decide what they should or should not eat. >> we know what they shouldn't eat, that is oil, dairy, meat, fish, and chicken. what do we want them to eat? we want them to eat all those whole grains for their cereal, bread, and pasta, beans, vegetables, yellow, red, green, and fruit. now, what particular vegetables do we want them to have? bok choy, swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, napa cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, arugula and asparagus, and i'm out of

breath. >> the mantra is eat nothing that has a mother or a face. the doctor and other researchers insist that if you stick to that advice you won't have a heart attack in the first place. who doesn't want that? still ahead, the kids are all right. i'll tell you who has the happiest, healthiest kids and what you can learn from this one particular kind of parent. ♪ create a better website at squarespace.com

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well, here's the headline children of same-sex parents are happier and healthier than their peers. kids raised by a mother and a father. no doubt this largest of its kind new study is going to get a lot of people fired up asking a lot of questions one way or another. to help me break this all down is one of the fierier moms i know, mel robbins joining us via skype from michigan. thanks for being here, mel. >> of course, thanks for having me.

>> in some ways when i looked at the study it seems to confirm what we'd already started to see with smaller, more anecdotal studies. i don't think it comes as a big surprise. but what were the main takeaways for this for you? >> basically there were three. this was a study from the university of melbourne where they looked at 500 kids, and 315 same-sex parents, sanjay, and they said three things that are really important. first of all in the category of general health, well-being and family cohesion, these kids that are being raised by gay parents are actually faring better than their peers. the second thing that the study concluded was that in most of the other categories, they're doing just the same as their peers. and then finally, they took a look at stigma, and the stigma that kids being raised by gay parents face, and that is the huge issue that i think is really important to dive into because it really impacts the way that these kids feel, of course. >> i mean, how big of an impact

was the stigma on overall well-being? >> it was enormous. because, you know, you're looking at -- and they do overlap. let me explain the overlap first between why kids with gay parents might have better well-being and more family cohesion. number one, the study kind of suggested that because when you have gay parents they don't typically divide down gender roles and the last time i was on talking with you, it was mother's day. and we were talking about how in most modern relationships when it is heterosexual even though most of the, you know -- most people are both working and the majority of households, there's still an unbelievable draconian split in terms of who's doing what in the household. in families where you have two same-sex parents, they tend to divide and conquer in the things that make them better parents. and so the focus is on the kids, which means better cohesion. it also means because their

focus is on the kids, the kids feel like they're a tighter unit and their well-being is better. now, the stigma plays out in two really interesting ways. i mean, first of all, the stigma completely blows for the kids. there are still 30 states out there where gay marriage isn't even legal. and so having kids live in parts of the united states, sanjay, where their parents' relationship isn't even legally recognized opens the door to bullying. it open the door to standing on the soccer lines and having other parents kind of do one of these at your parents. the subtle forms and the overt forms. and, of course, that has a huge impact on kids. >> but just overall in terms of attitudes in this country, leaving aside where we've been, what does a study like this mean in terms of where we're going? >> well, it's really important. because basically it pops the huge balloon that folks that

oppose gay marriage and folks that oppose gay men and women adopting kids have been blowing up. they've basically been saying as an argument against people being able to be married legally or adopt kids in a loving relationship that it's bad for the kids. ironically, do you know what this study proves? that the kids are just fine. in fact, kids of gay parents are doing great. they're doing at least as well as their peers and they're doing better in other categories. and the worst thing that is out there for kids of gay parents isn't gay parents, it's the people that oppose them! it's these laws that rip away their due process rights. the kids are fine. gay parents are fine. in fact, most people in communities that have gay parents and fam -- and kids with gay parents don't care. they're part of the community. it's no big deal. >> mel, thanks for joining us from my home state of michigan. i don't know if you knew that or not. >> i'm actually at my parents' house right now. >> well, say hi to them. they did a good job. tell them that for me. >> i disagree but -- >> thanks, mel robbins, really appreciate it. >> you got it.

great to see you. that's all the time we have for "sg md" today, but let's keep the conversation going on twitter. @doctorsanjaygupta. "new day sunday" continues right now christi paul and victor blackwell. 8:00 on a sunday, good morning, so grateful for your company. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. breaking news in the middle east, there are growing concerns that a ground invasion may be inevitable between israel and gaza. >> because overnight israeli forces ignored the u.n.'s request for a cease-fire and crossed into gaza, the first time in this conflict raiding a long range missile site. the military is dropping leaf t leaflets warning residents in northern gaza of more air strikes today, ordering civilians to